Slips of my tongue

Kudos to Maple Leaf Foods

Since taking the CC+PR program, I am more aware of the way organizations react when faced with a crisis. After the Sunrise Propane debacle, it’s refreshing to see a company get it right.

Maple Leaf Foods should be patted on the back for practicing great PR after the listeriosis outbreak. If this isn’t a textbook example of good crisis communications, I don’t know what is. They have been open and communicative with their stakeholders – customers, investors, media – from the beginning. They have cooperated with government agencies. They have reached out to their audiences in any way possible: full-page ads in newspapers; news releases; analyst conference calls; their website; and social media (see clip below). As a result, I have yet to come across any negative feedback in the media or the blogosphere.

The recall will cost them approximately $20 million in losses. But maintaining the public’s trust in their brand and reputation will be worth much more in the long run.

If you look at the Sunrise Propane website, there’s no mention of anything. It hasn’t been updated ever since. And to boot, the website talks about sales and what products lie in their storage. An indirect, yet blunt slap in the face of the people who have been affected by the explosion to see a company that is slow to react and doesn’t even have proper spelling and grammar on their splash page. Go figure.

I showed this clip in my second Intro to CC+PR class in connection with strategic communication. I think how Maple Leaf has handled this communication will make it the “Tylenol Case of 2008”. It will be in most business textbooks.